62 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



injuries were received whilst moving before the quills had 

 softened under the influence of the digestive function. A 

 python already referred to, which was killed by Mr. Cope- 

 land's coolies in Assam, refused to move from its refuge in the 

 jungle though surrounded by a howling mob of coolies. After 

 some time, the sustained apathy it exhibited stimulated the 

 courage of the men, who advanced by degrees nearer and 

 nearer till they actually probed it with sticks and bamboos, 

 and made the situation so untenable that the snake was 

 forced to bestir itself. In trying to get away the horns of 

 a hog deer, which it had swallowed, penetrated its flanks. It 

 was finally despatched, and measured 15 feet. The horns of 

 the deer were about 7 or 8 inches long. Such accidents are 

 not very uncommon in snakes of all kinds — from overdis- 

 tension, or from mechanical causes, the beaks of birds, 

 claws of various animals, &c. — and I have collected quite 

 a number of incidents of the kind. 



The old traveller's stories of pythons, boas, &c, swallowing 

 stags is not borne out by modern observations. I doubt if 

 a python ever kills any deer with horns it is not capable of 

 swallowing. If it does, then sooner or later it has to relin- 

 quish its victim. The old books that led one to believe that 

 the stag was swallowed up to its antlers, which projected 

 from the mouth, and remained in situ till the head rotted off 

 certainly misled us. The only way in which the body could 

 be retained and the head rejected would be by a slow decom- 

 position (not a digestive process) separating the head at the 

 neck joint, a process that would probably take several weeks 

 to accomplish, and would exhaust even a python's patience. 

 The body of a stag in such a position would not reach the 

 stomach, and would not be subjected to any digestive action, 

 for the saliva is inert to animal tissues. Further, I doubt 

 whether the lung could fulfil its function satisfactorily, even 

 with the small oxygen requirements of a snake, when sub- 

 jected to the great and continued pressure of a carcass like 

 a stag's. 



The digestive powers of a python depend naturally on its 

 general health. Phipson found that in the hot weather in 

 captivity small creatures like rats and crows were completely 



